It’s no consolation to Waynesboro Area Senior High School junior running back Brett Mohn that the same thing happened to his head coach.

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By Lee Goodwin

Waynesboro Record Herald - Waynesboro, PA

By Lee Goodwin

Posted Aug. 15, 2014 at 11:00 AM

By Lee Goodwin

Posted Aug. 15, 2014 at 11:00 AM

WAYNESBORO — It’s no consolation to Waynesboro Area Senior High School junior running back Brett Mohn that the same thing happened to his head coach.

So while Mohn’s teammates prepare for the 2014 high school football season without him, Mohn can only dig in and rehab for his senior season in 2014.

Mohn, who was projected to be a key player in the Tribe’s offense, was lost for the season with a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament, suffered during the heat acclamation practices last week. It just so happens that Waynesboro head coach Brennan Marion is uniquely familiar with the devastating injury.

“I was crying with him and we were talking about it,” said Marion, who suffered three ACL injuries, including a career-ending one while attempting to make the Miami Dolphins roster in 2010. “To see the way the kid worked, it’s heartbreaking.

“He was on the verge of leaving this school. I talked to him and got him to stay here and got him motivated. For him to go down with a knee injury — the same knee injury I had — i just broke my heart.”

Marion said Mohn, the feature back last season, stopped to make a routine cut when he felt a pop in his knee.

“Nobody touched him,” Marion said. “Nobody touched me when it happened. He said he heard a pop. He walked off the field because he’s a tough guy. He went to the doctor and that’s what the prognosis was.”

Teammates and coaches rallied around Mohn following Thursday’s practice, which featured a heated scrimmage between the offense and defense, during which Marion oversaw from high atop the scaffolding adjacent to the practice field.

“Being there and feeling that pain, I told him the things that made me recover slower and the things that happened to me personally,” Marion said. “He was going to be a 20-25 carry-a-game guy. We were looking for him to do great things. He has 80 brothers and 12 uncles on the coaching staff he can lean on. He’s like family to me.”

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Transfer student Justin Marion will likely be the go-to back in Waynesboro’s pro style offense. And, with Mohn no longer on the depth chart, Jake Wertz emerged as the No. 2 running back.

“(Wertz) is known for his wrestling,” Marion said. “He’s a great kid. He played wide receiver and defensive back last year. But when I saw his skill set — he’s real low to the ground — he can cut and change direction. He’s going to be the next running back next to Justin.”

Page 2 of 2 - Aiden Smith is the favorite at fullback, while wide receiver Matt Peck has looked like a primary target for quarterback Connor Fetterhoff. The two hooked up multiple times during the scrimmage, and Peck showed off his open-field running ability by making short passes into long pass plays.

“Matt Peck is looking really good out there, and we have Devin Palmaffy-Marion, Cameron Keck was in there at receiver. We also had Charlie Patterson, Ben Gsell and the new kid (Jason) Montiel has been a bright spot for us. He can really get downfield and get vertical.”

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Marion was, for the most part, plenty pleased with the play in the trenches on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. He watched several skirmishes break out between the two sides, which were quickly quelled and players returned to their respective huddles to get ready for the next play.

“My rule with the linemen is if you don’t get nasty, you don’t get on the field,” Marion said.

While Marion said some roster spots are in effect secured, others remain open.

“I think we’re always still open. We’re a performance over politics team, whatever’s best for the team,” he said.

Marion expressed mild concern about the number of turnovers and overall tempo of the offense during the scrimmage, something that the team will no doubt continue to work on during the next two weeks as the Tribe prepares for the season opener against Kennard-Dale on Aug. 29.

“There’s always things we can work on. We need to speed up the tempo. With a quarterback who was out a year, you’re a little slower. We’re going to do what we have to do to put (Fetterhoff) in the best position to make our offense go.”

The coaching staff has undergone a transformation this season as Marion, hired in January, brought in Dee Brown (who played collegiately at Shippensburg University) and Will Nelms, who was an assistant coach at Florida 2A state champion Champagnat Catholic High School in 2013. Nelms has been working with the defensive backs.

“Our secondary is under scrutiny every day because we have tough DB coaches,” Marion said.

Waynesboro will turn their attention to an opponent other than itself as the Indians scrimmage Fairfield on Saturday.

“I want the boys to go out there and show people what they’ve been doing the last seven or eight months,” Marion said.